Pages

Wednesday, 29 October 2014

Ylva - Pathfinder Character Concept

The third character I put together for this stage in Pathfinder - I've always wanted to play a 'bardbarian' so Skald really appealed to me. It's really a 5th player character class, sadly, and wouldn't work with the other characters in the group, as the inspiring song ability wouldn't assist them, as they all rely on skills based on dex/int/cha. A group with traditional, strength-based fighters would probably benefit from a skald, though.

I found the name using the website 'Behind the Name', a site I've used a lot over the years for name inspiration in fiction as well as gaming. It means 'Wolf' and I thought it sounded pretty. 'Astriddottir' is using a matronymic surname in the Icelandic style and means 'Astrid's Daughter'; she could also be Ylva Hinrikdottir. 'Astrid' came because I've always liked the name; 'Hinrik', 'Sverrir' and 'Dag' all came from going through the website - 'Tarrah' and 'Darrik' are made up because they sound kinda orc-ish.

I really wanted to play an elder half-orc sister to another player, but in the end it didn't fit with anyone else's concept, so I added the idea to Ylva with her sister Tarrah, whom I picture more as a barbarian than skald.

Armour: Hero’s Hauberk (+1 adamantine chain shirt –
the adamantine DR stacks with any other DR; sings along to a raging song and
gains light fortification; sings along to bardic performances and gives +1 luck
bonus on ability & skill checks and penalties applied to various roles are
reduced by 1 per role)

Appearance: Late teens, with white-blonde hair, bright
blue eyes and weather-beaten yet fair skin. She’s tall and broad, muscular with
the kind of build that gets described as ‘strapping’ in young men. She tends to
carry her polearm strapped across her back; in the north she wears furs and
other warm items, further south her clothes get closer to the ‘chainmail
bikini’ trope, though still remaining warrior-like.

Background:

Ylva is her
father’s first child and her mother’s second. She has two younger brothers,
Sverrir and Dag, and an elder half-sister, half-orc Tarrah Darrikdottir.

Astrid
Bearsinger left her homestead and went wandering as a young adult. She met and
fell in love with Darrik Rustthrasher, a young and fairly lowly orc from a
tribe to the north of her home. She returned with him and bore him a daughter,
Tarrah, but ultimately couldn’t tolerate the conditions of the orc camp. She
returned home, where she met and married Ylva’s father, Hunrik.

Tarrah
remained with her father but never felt as though she fit very well into his
society – hard as she worked, she was never as strong or as fierce as those
around her. She spent a couple of months every year with her mother’s family,
where the young Ylva idolised her brave big sister, so when Darrik died in a
raid she decided to move permanently down to the pinkies. She soon found she
didn’t fit in as well here as she’d thought, either. Lonely, she set out on her
own and soon built up a reputation as a warrior for hire. Little Ylva loved it
whenever she came back to town, always with some gift for her younger siblings
and full of tales of the exciting places she had been. As soon as Ylva was old
enough, she began to pester to join her sister and, after a few years of
travelling, had developed a reputation of her own.

Besides her
idolisation of Tarrah, Ylva helped raise Sverrir and Dag so is very protective
of them. The siblings are close and she would do anything for them.

Ylva’s home
is filled with the love of singing, history and skill at arms. Ylva has done
her best to balance these, practicing as hard with her lyre
as her bardiche
and spending hours learning and reciting the histories and sagas. The
competitive environment has suited her and instilled in her a love of learning and
intense curiosity that further feeds her wanderlust. She is a bit of a
show-off, liking to drop obscure facts into conversation.

She’s very competitive
and will always rise to a challenge. Smart, strong and talented, she’s usually
the victor but is as magnanimous in defeat as in victory.